Saudi Arabia urged to improve domestic worker treatment

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website; JURIST news archive] released a report [HRW materials; press release] Tuesday calling on the Saudi government to institute new legal protections for the country's estimated 1.5 million domestic workers. The group said that migrant domestic workers have fewer protections than those in other occupations, and are specifically excluded from the country's 2005 Labor Law [statute text]. HRW added that migrant workers are particularly vulnerable to abuse because their visas are tied to their employer, and that the workers, mostly Asian women, are subject to much of the sexual discrimination in the country [JURIST report]. The group said that not all workers were abused but that too many faced harsh conditions:

While many domestic workers enjoy decent work conditions, others endure a range of abuses including non-payment of salaries, forced confinement, food deprivation, excessive workload, and instances of severe psychological, physical, and sexual abuse. Human Rights Watch documented dozens of cases where the combination of these conditions amounted to forced labor, trafficking, or slavery-like conditions.

HRW encouraged the government to swiftly enact a proposed annex to the labor law, allow the workers access to new labor courts [JURIST report], and allow independent monitoring of the migrant worker system. AP has more.

About Paper Chase

Paper Chase is JURIST's real-time legal news service, powered by a team of 30 law student reporters and editors led by law professor Bernard Hibbitts at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. As an educational service, Paper Chase is dedicated to presenting important legal news and materials rapidly, objectively and intelligibly in an accessible format.